Category: Coit Tower
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Telegraph Hill – Coit Tower Murals
Telegraph Hill Coit Tower WPA Murals * * * This pair of canvas’ are also in the elevator alcove. The depict the farmlands of the Santa Clara Valley and the hills of the East Bay. The artists was Rinaldo Cuneo. (1877-1939). Cuneo was a native San Franciscan from North Beach where he maintained a studio.…
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Telegraph Hill – Coit Tower Murals
Telegraph Hill Coit Tower WPA Murals * This is the second of the murals in the elevator alcove, It is titled San Francisco Bay, North and is by Jose Moya Del Pino (1869-1969). The two young men represent Moya del Pino himself watching as fellow artist Otis Oldfield sketches what he sees below him. If…
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Telegraph Hill – Coit Tower Murals
Telegraph Hill Coit Tower WPA Murals * In the alcove, where visitors wait for the elevator are four more murals. This one is titled San Francisco Bay. This is an oil on canvas, and was painted in the artists studio. The two little girls are the artists, Otis Oldfield’s, daughters, Rhoda and Jayne. as they…
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Telegraph Hill – Coit Tower Murals
Telegraph Hill Coit Tower WPA Murals News Gathering by Suzanne Scheuer Scheuer worked with assistant Heve Daum on news gathering for her panel in Coit Tower. Suzanne Scheuer was born in San Jose, California on February 11, 1898. She moved to San Francisco in 1918. She studied at the California School of Fine Arts and…
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Telegraph Hill – Coit Tower Murals
Telegraph Hill Coit Tower WPA Murals The Library by Bernard B. Zakheim The Coit Tower murals were painted during a particularly disruptive period in U.S. History. Depression related economic challenges led to much discussion about alternate forms of government. A four day general strike (Bloody Thursday) accompanied by widespread rioting in San Francisco triggered an…
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Telegraph Hill – Coit Tower Murals
Telegraph Hill Coit Tower WPA Murals * Stockbroker and Scientist by Mallete (Harold) Dean Their are six figures that stand alone in the Tower. (You can review the first four here). The stockbroker/banker is thought to be A.P. Giannini, founder of the Bank of Italy that later became Bank of America. The Scientist is Nobel…
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Telegraph Hill – Coit Tower Murals
Telegraph Hill Coit Tower WPA Murals The Meat Industry by Raymond Bertrand * Notice the clever use of the window Raymond Bertrand (1901-1986) was a native San Franciscan. He studied at the California School of Fine Arts where he later taught Lithography. Bertrand was primarily a landscape panter, a critic once commented that Bertrand used…
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Telegraph Hill – Coit Tower Murals
Telegraph Hill Coit Tower WPA Murals * ( * Industries of California by Ralph Stackpole This is a vast expression of the industries of California at the time. Stackpole painted several fellow artists in this mural as well. Tom Lehman, a local artist, pours chemicals into a container while William Hesthal bends over a table,…
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Telegraph Hill – Coit Tower Murals
Telegraph Hill Coit Tower WPA Murals Department Store by Frede Vidar This mural depicts the interior of a typical 1930’s department store with soda fountain and wine shop. Some items of interest are the fact that the waitress wears a cap with a Star of Dave, (which is surprising as Frede Vidar frequently expressed pro-Nazi…
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Telegraph Hill – Coit Tower Murals
Telegraph Hill Coit Tower WPA Murals * Cowboy and Farmer by Clifford Wight These are four of six single standing figures in the collection. They represent the very essence of California. The Will Rogers Style cowboy (that many friends of Wight said was a self portrait) and the farmer, that looks an awful lot like…
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Telegraph Hill – Coit Tower Murals
Telegraph Hill Coit Tower WPA Murals * * * * City Life by Victor Arnautoff is one of the largest murals in Coit Tower. It is a wonderfully vibrant street scene taking artistic license with the various city landmarks and their geographic positions. * * * Some things of note, the fire engine is Number…
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Telegraph Hill – Coit Tower Murals
Telegraph Hill Coit Tower WPA Murals * * California Industrial Scenes by John Langley Howard This mural gives us several juxtaposed scenes indicative of any society, but especially poignant during such difficult times. There are the solemn workers of the May Day demonstration, a woman doing laundry on the rocks, and an elderly woman sawing…
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Telegraph Hill – Coit Tower Murals
Telegraph Hill Coit Tower WPA Murals * The California Agriculture Industry by Gordon Langdon The dairy business is represented in this mural as well as several of the artists friends. Gordon Langdon was assisted by Helen Clement Mills on this mural. Fellow artist Fred Olmsted and his assistant Tom Hayes Fellow artist John Langley Howard…
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Telegraph Hill – Coit Tower
Telegraph Hill Coit Tower WPA Murals * * * * This mural is titled California and is by Maxine Albro. A wonderful depiction of the bounty of the California agricultural industry from Mt. Shasta Almond Orchards to Napa Valley grapes. * * The “gentlemen farmers” are actually the artists friends. Ralph Stackpole is in the…
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Telegraph Hill – Coit Tower
Telegraph Hill Coit Tower WPA Murals The little seated boy looks at a book whose page shows the date of Coit Tower (1933) and the date of the WPA projects at Coit Tower (1934). * Animal Force by Ray Boynton These are the first frescoes that one sees when entering Coit Tower. Boynton chose to portray…
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Telegraph Hill – Coit Tower Murals
Telegraph Hill Coit Tower WPA Murals * This law library has some interesting book titles when one looks closely. There are the usual Civil, Penal and Moral Codes, but also the Law of Fresco Painting, Counterfeiting, and Laws on Seduction. A fun one is Martial Law by Brady, he was the VFW caretaker who watched over…
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Telegraph Hill -Coit Tower Murals
Telegraph Hill Coit Tower WPA Murals * * This is the beginning of a series on the WPA murals of Coit Tower. When the Great Depression hit, like everyone, artists were not finding work. George Biddle, a prominent lawyer turned successful artist, a member of a socially prominent family from Philadelphia, and most importantly, a…
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Telegraph Hill – Coit Tower
Telegraph Hill Coit Tower To understand Coit Tower you must first understand Lillie Hitchcock Coit. A nice tale is told here from the Virtual San Francisco History Museum written by: By Frederick J. Bowlen, Battalion Chief, San Francisco Fire Department. One of the most unusual personalities ever connected with our Fire Department was a woman. She was Lillie…
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Christopher Columbus
Coit Tower Telegraph Hill * * Columbus by Vittorio Di Colbertaldo – 1957 This statue of Christopher Columbus sits in the center of the parking lot for Coit Tower. The figure of Columbus, the famous Italian explorer, gazes out over San Francisco Bay standing on a concrete pedestal in the center of a circular flower…